1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to buckets for machines, and more particularly, to bucket designs that maximize the liquid transport capability of the disclosed bucket designs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A machine, such as a wheel or track loader, may be equipped with a bucket assembly to perform operations at a work site. Such operations may include, for example, penetrating material in the ground or in a pile, scooping material, moving material, and depositing the material in a desired location. Sometimes, the material is a liquid or a slurry, such as water, mud or a cement slurry. The transport of liquids and slurries differs from the transport of granular solids and rocks because of the tendency of a liquid or slurry to spill from the bucket during transport. Using current bucket designs, it is more difficult and time consuming and therefore less efficient to transport liquids and slurries than granular solids.
Further, the level of performance achieved by a wheel loader operator using the wheel loader may depend, at least partially, on one or more design characteristics of the bucket. This is particularly true when the bucket is used to transport liquids and slurries as current buckets are designed primarily for transporting solid materials, not liquids and/or slurries.